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Purpose Podcast 028 — Franklin Jones (B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery): To Make Our Communities More Livable

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When you think of an urban core, what do you think of? Traffic? Congestion? Noise? With Franklin Jones’ vision for B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery, it doesn’t have to be that way. (See also my earlier episode featuring Rob Sadowsky of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.)  B-Line uses these amazing human-powered (electric assist) tricycles to make the “last-mile delivery” for their customers such as Portland Roasting Coffee, Dave’s Killer Bread, and Office Depot.  Instead of these companies needing to use huge gas-guzzling trucks that end up empty (and thus just taking up space) most of the time, these companies drop shop to B-Line’s warehouse where their goods are re-packed into these vehicles:

delivery

  • Benefits to this model:
  • Less congestion because the vehicles are smaller and can often use bike infrastructure instead of car/truck infrastructure.
  • Less pollution because these are emissions vehicles.  They also use far less energy than an electric-powered truck would.
  • Stronger community because these riders are interacting with the public.  You can talk to them as they do their work (if you’re walking or on a bike).
  • Lower delivery costs because now smaller deliveries can be make economically.

In addition, they also pick up food that would normally go to waste from Whole Foods (using unused tricycle capacity that would normally go to waste on the way back to the warehouse) and deliver it to organizations serving hungry people.

Win, win, win!

How does your business model make an impact?

Contact info:

Purpose Podcast 027 — Sabrina Parsons (MommyCEO): To Be The Best Person That I Can Be

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I start this episode talking about how I hate the term work-life balance. Is your work not part of your life? Just because people think of work as being 40 hours per week (or 60, 70 or 80 for entrepreneurs), does not mean it has to be that way. You can create your life. I give some examples.  Then I introduced my guest this week, Sabrina Parsons.

Sabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software, based in Eugene, Oregon.  Palo Alto Software is focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business succeed.  The business mission is to provide high quality low cost tools to small businesses.

Sabrina blogs at Forbes.com and MommyCEO.org and is the President of the Princeton Entrepreneurs Network.  She balances her business life with her husband and 3 sons.

During our conversation she talked about one role of the CEO as Kool-Aid dispenser (develop and share a vision in such a way that people buy into where the company is going).

She mentioned a couple of articles she’s written:

Do you have to pretend you’re sick because your child is sick?  At Palo Alto Software, no one has to pretend anything.

We focus not on hours or minutes in the office, but instead on productivity.  That means we need to spend more time and energy defining, “What does success look like?”

When I asked Sabrina about purpose, she first answered: “My ultimate purpose is always going to be to be the best person that I can be.”  Then she went further to say it is to be a successful person and be a person who lives by her moral values.  This means that when she’s a mom, she’s 100% present and working to be the best mom possible and when she’s taking on something at work, she won’t do it unless she can give 100% to it. 

Contact Sabrina

Contact Ted

After the interview I related how systems can help reduce the hourly requirement.  Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is a book by Verne Harnish that lays out such a system.  I can help you implement or customize your practices to dramatically reduce the day to day requirements on your executives, helping you maximize the impact you’re making per unit of effort.

Purpose Podcast 026 — Dr. Mollie Marti: God help me encourage love, aliveness and service in others.

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Dr. Mollie Marti told me “I’m here to help the children,” when I asked her about her purpose.  She then elaborated by sharing a daily prayer from her mentor, Judge Rosen: “God help me make a contribution to a just and peaceful world.”  Inspired by that prayer, Dr. Mollie crafted her own daily prayer: “God help me encourage love, aliveness and service in others.”  As we talked further, she told me her purpose is to “help adults find their own way to thrive and serve others.”

Dr. Mollie runs the Community Resiliency Project which was born of a community that lost 3 teenagers to suicide in a short time.  I asked her how a community can become more resilient and she shared the framework they use, called THRIVE.

  • T Trusted adults
  • H High expectations
  • R Resiliency building
  • I Involvement
  • V Vision
  • E Enrichment

A couple of other quotes from our interview that struck me:

  • “As you strengthen others, your strengthen yourself.”
  • “You matter.  We need you!”  This refers to a campaign they run with their young people.
  • “Your value lies not in status or title but in the roots of your character and depth of your compassion.”
  • “Allow the way to your great work to be guided by your service to others.”

In our interview, Dr. Molli referred to her annual theme.  Read more at her blog.

Dr. Mollie’s links:

My links:

Purpose Podcast 025 — Rob Jordan: Betterment of Others & Betterment of Ourselves

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This last week I read an amazing article that speaks directly to being who you are. My wife and I choose the name Sarvata when we married because it means wholeness or integrity. That’s what this podcast is all about. It’s about asking yourself who you are and then it’s organizing your life so you can be that.

This article starts by asking a trivial question: how did Toast become the latest artisinal food craze in San Francisco?

Turns out the roots can be traced to the Trouble Coffee & Coconut Club owned by Giulietta Carrelli.  Listen to my take on that story and then go read the original article.  Amazing.

Rob Jordan: Betterment of Others & Betterment of Ourselves

Rob Jordan, founder and CEO of Idealist Consulting, told us about his purpose, the betterment of others and betterment of ourselves.  I invited him on the show because he was one of the first 50 Certified B Corps in the world.  This certification recognizes Idealist Consulting’s commitment to the triple bottom line (people, planet and profits).

Idealist Consulting serves non-profits to help them improve efficiency around fundraising, outreach, etc.  Cloud services provides like Salesforce.com gift the software (with the accompanying tax write-off) and the non-profit pays Idealist Consulting to get everything set up and customized for them.  Win, win, win.

Check out Idealist Consulting’s Ethics and Maxims from their website (IdealistConsulting.com).

A Bit About My Work

After the interview I talked a bit about the work that I do, helping entrepreneurs and executive teams decide on their purpose, who they’re serving and what they’re selling, all important pieces of a business model.  To schedule a 20-minute phone call with me to get to know each other and see if we ought to talk further, please visit: http://PurposePodcast.com/phone

My consulting website is: TedSarvata.com

Purpose Podcast 024 — Ray King: A Domain Name For Everyone, That Matches Their Passion

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Ray-King-Purpose-Podcast-Quote.001Dot Com has been the top dog in the world of internet addresses for many years.  That may be turned on it’s head in the next year or two as many, many new domain name extensions come into being.  Ray King is one of the entrepreneurs helping to shape what this newly-named internet will look like.

“Over the next year or two, people will get used to the new system [where hundreNew TLDs advertisedds of new domain name extensions such as .wiki, .ink, .dentist, .law, etc come into existence].”

“This will give pretty much everyone the chance to get a domain name that really matches their passion.”

“Now is a great time to think about your identity and your space on the internet and it’s going to be super exciting in the next couple of years.”

Links:

Purpose Podcast 023 — Wendy Maynard: Transformation

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Wendy’s Maynard’s purpose at Kinesis is Transformation.  Listen to the show to find out more about what that means for a marketing agency that helps business owners with much more than marketing.

Kinesis has also defined its values as verbs, per Simon Sinek (I need to look into this further):

  • Think Big
  • Build to Last
  • Share the Good
  • Do the Right Thing

“Our vision is to transform the marketing paradigm for small and mid-sized businesses.”

Purpose Podcast 022 — Jackie Peterson: Every Small Business Financially Successful

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Your Niche from Better Smarter Richer
Find Your Focus and Develop a Deep, Narrow Niche, from Jackie Peterson’s Better, Smarter, Richer

Jackie Peterson’s purpose is to have every small business be financially successful.  Her specific passion is solo entrepreneurs, specifically creatives (artists of all stripes, visual, performance, etc) and encore (retirees who launch solo businesses in their later years). Links from our interview with Jackie Peterson:

  • Jackie’s Better Smarter Richer training online at OpenSesame
  • BetterSmarterRicher.com – check out Jackie’s free ebook Better Smarter Richer and her study group in Portland, Oregon that starts January 7th

Links from my intro, about B Corps (Wikipedia)

See also: Jim Collins Hedgehog concept

Purpose Podcast 021 — Brian Setzler: TriLibrium helps our customers succeed across the triple bottom line

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Some insights from Brian Setzler of TriLibrium, the triple bottom line CPA and Accounting firm (paraphrased):

  • Anything we try to maximize, we blow up. If we can create a system in balance, on the other hand, everyone wins.
  • Ben and Jerry’s was started to help Vermont dairy farmers. Their success hasn’t been because they have the best ice cream or the best marketing or the best price, but because people connect with their purpose.  (Ben & Jerry’s is a Certified B Corp, as is TriLibrium)
  • Several ways to look at and think about purpose
    • To help our customers succeed across the triple bottom line.
    • To serve small business.
    • To be a model and inspiration for other businesses, the power of business to make a positive difference in the world.
    • Honest Relationships
  • book: The Living Company (as opposed to a business as a machine).  Half of the fortune 500 from 30 years ago doesn’t exist today. On the other hand, there are hundreds of companies around the world today that are over 300 years old. What does it take to build a company with that kind of stability?
  • People come to work for a paycheck but loyalty and commitment and dedication is tied to purpose.
  • BLabs is the organization that does the B Corp certification (BCorporation.net). As Brian talked about, anyone can do the assessment. I went ahead and did the assessment for my business. They give you a score at the end and 3 different benchmarks: normal businesses average 50, sustainable businesses average 80 and certified B Corps average 91. My initial score was 56, so we have some work to do. For example, Brian talked about how his company didn’t have a maternity leave policy when they took the initial assessment. That’s true for me too, and many other areas where I don’t have policies. My vision is very community-focused, but almost none of that is written down in policies. I’ll keep you updated over time as I learn more about what changes I can make and which ones I decide to make.
  • Links:

Purpose Podcast 020 — Isaac Tolpin: Choose Growth amplifies magnitude of mission for thought leaders

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Isaac Tolpin Purpose Podcast QuoteIsaac Tolpin says Choose Growth amplifies magnitude of mission for thought leaders. “If you’re not really clear about your purpose, mission and culture, you’ll make decisions that appear be good for your business from a financial standpoint but long term are harmful for your business.”

“We’re not just writing a blog post or finding an image for a website, we’re making an impact for our partners. Speaking our purpose aloud regularly reminds us what we’re really here for.”

“When you’re a person of purpose, you’re attractive, calling business to you and making an impact. ”

Links:

Purpose Podcast 019 – Jenelle Isaacson’s Living Room Realty is Developing Vibrant Communities

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Jenelle-Isaacson-Purpose-Podcast-QuoteJenelle Isaacson’s Living Room Realty is Developing Vibrant Communities.  This purpose (they call it their mission) came out of work they did internally to determine their core values.  This are real estate agents as you’ve never imagined them!

Living Room Realty is a Certified B Corp (of fewer than 1000 companies worldwide, including New Seasons and Ben & Jerry’s).  B Corps are certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.